WSXGA+ LED, where art thou?

October 24, 2008 7:16 PM

LongshotFilter: Does anyone know if any 15.4" WSXGA+ panels with LED backlights are coming to market soon?

As far as I can tell, no one is selling a 15.4" laptop with a WSXGA+ (1650x1080) LED-backlit screen (I'd love to be proven wrong!). I know it's unlikely, but does anyone out there have any idea if there's one in development or coming to market any time soon?

My current alternatives are basically 1440x900 LED or 1650x1080 CCFL, and I just can't make up my mind between the two.

posted by knave to computers & internet (3 comments total)

I assume you've come across this page already?

I had a 17" laptop with a resolution of 1650x1080 and things were small. If you got the same resolution at 15" you can expect things to be very small. Now, it is possible to set your OS to "large fonts" mode and suchlike, but you probably want to try out large fonts mode before buying a laptop which will need it full time.
posted by Mike1024 at 4:09 AM on October 25, 2008

I've been running assorted flavors of Linux on my Dell Inspiron 8200, which has a 15" 1600x1200 screen, since 2001. The extra resolution has always made things look better, not worse, because Linux's screen rendering basically works.

Windows, on the other hand, does not cope at all well with DPI settings much over 96. Lots of things look terrible. Even leaving the DPI set at the standard 96 and turning on Extra Large Fonts breaks some apps.

So if you're going to run the crappy operating system, get the crappy screen.
posted by flabdablet at 6:36 AM on October 25, 2008

Mike1024, I currently run 1920x1200 on a 17" laptop (for two and a half years now). I use 1650x1080 on a 15.4" Thinkpad at work and I like it. So, basically, I'm aware of the resolution. In fact, one of the options is 1920x1200 LED on a 15.4", and that would be way too high resolution for my eyes, so I'm not considering it.
posted by knave at 7:28 AM on October 25, 2008